Editing Timbre (section)

==In music history==
Instrumental timbre played an increasing role in the practice of [[orchestration]] during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]]{{r|Macdonald1969_51}} and [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]]{{r|Latham1926}} made significant contributions to its development during the nineteenth century. For example, Wagner's "Sleep motif" from Act 3 of his opera ''[[Die Walküre]]'', features a descending [[chromatic scale]] that passes through a gamut of orchestral timbres.  First the woodwind (flute, followed by oboe), then the massed sound of strings with the violins carrying the melody, and finally the brass (French horns).[[File:Wagner Sleep music from Act 3 of Die Walkure.wav|thumb|Wagner Sleep music from Act 3 of ''Die Walküre'']][[File:Wagner Sleep music from Act 4 of Die Walkure.png|thumb|center|600px|Wagner Sleep music from Act 3 of ''Die Walküre'']][[Claude Debussy|Debussy]], who composed during the last decades of the nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth centuries, has been credited with elevating further the role of timbre: "To a marked degree the music of Debussy elevates timbre to an unprecedented structural status; already in ''[[Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune]]'' the ''color'' of [[flute]] and [[harp]] functions referentially".{{r|Samson1977_195}} [[Mahler]]'s approach to [[orchestration]] illustrates the increasing role of differentiated timbres in music of the early twentieth century. [[Norman Del Mar]]  describes the following passage from the [[Scherzo]] movement of his [[Symphony No. 6 (Mahler)|Sixth Symphony]], as
: "a seven-bar link to the trio consisting of an extension in diminuendo of the repeated As ... though now rising in a succession of piled octaves which moreover leap-frog with Cs added to the As.{{r|DelMar1980_48}} The lower octaves then drop away and only the Cs remain so as to dovetail with the first oboe phrase of the trio."

During these bars, Mahler passes the repeated notes through a gamut of instrumental colors, mixed and single: starting with horns and pizzicato strings, progressing through trumpet, clarinet, flute, piccolo and finally, oboe:[[File:Mahler, Symphony No. 6, Scherzo, Figure 55, bars 5-12.wav|thumb|Mahler, Symphony No. 6, Scherzo, Figure 55, bars 5–12]][[File:Mahler, Symphony No. 6, Scherzo, Figure 55, bars 5-12.png|thumb|center|500px|Mahler, Symphony No. 6, Scherzo, Figure 55, bars 5–12]] (See also {{em|[[Klangfarbenmelodie]]}}.)

In [[rock music]] from the late 1960s to the 2000s, the timbre of specific sounds is important to a song. For example, in [[heavy metal music]], the sonic impact of the heavily amplified, heavily distorted [[power chord]] played on electric guitar through very loud guitar amplifiers and rows of [[speaker enclosures|speaker cabinet]]s is an essential part of the style's musical identity.